Protecting the Lands of Bethania
The Piedmont Land Conservancy’s mission
is to protect natural resources, water quality,
farmland, and urban green-space in nine counties
of the northwest Piedmont of North Carolina.
The Piedmont Land Conservancy’s efforts to
preserve open lands of the historic Town of
Bethania protect the community from surrounding
development. The land preservation of the 60
acres of land in Black Walnut
Bottoms was made possible
by generous gifts of land or
land value by various families
and by historic preservation
funds provided by the N.C.
Natural Heritage Trust Fund.
For more information, visit
PiedmontLand.org.
The Town of Bethania
founded 1759
Black Walnut
Bottoms
L oop T r a i l
Black Walnut
Muddy Creek • Your journey along the Black
Walnut Bottoms Loop Trail will take you by Muddy
Creek, across Bear Creek, and over Laurel Creek.
All these waterways were important to Bethania’s
residents—both two legged and four legged! How
many insects and animals do you see in or near these
waterways?
Black Walnut • German settlers often sought
locations with Black Walnut trees since the walnuts’
presence can indicate limestone-rich soil, superior
for farming. Black Walnut, a beautiful brown wood,
was considered the best and most valuable wood for
joiner’s work. The walnuts were used for food and
the outer hulls in dying. Today we appreciate Black
Walnut trees for their beauty and wildlife value.
The Town of Bethania
e s t a bl i s h e d 1 7 5 9
336.922.0434 | TownofBethania.org
Spicebush Swallowtail
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The Town of Bethania
5393 Ham Horton Lane | Bethania, NC 27010
[email protected]
Pawpaw tree • The Pawpaw tree is the host
plant for Zebra Swallowtail caterpillars. Watch for
the Pawpaw and the Zebra Swallowtail butterfly.
Native Cane (Giant Cane) • This colonial grass
is common in Piedmont swamps and wetlands,
and grows in a few places near the creek banks. It
is a host to several species of butterflies, including
Pearly-eyes and Skippers.
Visit ForsythAudubon.org
FREE ADMISSION
Group Tours by Appointment
Common Pawpaw
Hedgerows • The dense growth of hedgerows
provides protection for many birds and small
animals. As you walk, listen to the birdcalls. Can you
recognize the voices of these Bethania residents?
Plant and wildlife identification on
the Black Walnut Bottoms Loop Trail
was provided by the Audubon Society
of Forsyth County.
Tuesday–Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm
Zebra Swallowtail
Spicebush • The Spicebush is the host plant for
Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars. Can you spot the
differences between the Spicebush and the Zebra
Swallowtail?
The Town of Bethania, Piedmont Land
Conservancy, and the North Carolina Department
of Cultural Resources have worked together over
the past 14 years to preserve more than 165 acres
of historic land.
Historic Bethania Visitor Center
What to look for on the Black Walnut Bottoms Loop Trail:
A project of the
Town of Bethania, the
Piedmont Land
Conservancy, and the
North Carolina
Department of
Cultural Resources.
1.4 miles | conservancy-protected
Bethania is the second oldest Moravian settlement
in North Carolina and is recognized as a National
Landmark Historic District because it is one of the
only examples in the United States of a German
“medieval” plan farming village. In Bethania, the
Moravian Church owned the land. The families lived
in the farming village and were each assigned equal
bottom-land strip fields and upland orchard lots.
The town was laid out in this German agricultural
pattern by the surveyor Christian Gottlieb Reuter.
Families lived on 24 town lots that flanked a main
street running north and south of a central square.
Black Walnut Bottoms area, as pictured in the original 1766
Reuter Bethania Land Plat.
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Tuesday–Saturday
10 am to 4 pm
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Old Apple
Orchard II
Picnic area
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Mud
Marked Trail
Map and notices
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Map
Legend
Laure
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Bench
WALNUT BLUFFS
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PLC & State Protected Lands
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Muddy Creek Bluffs
Muddy
Creek
Floodplain
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NA R D RID G
Walnut Bottoms
WALNUT BOTTOMS
Cedar Grove
School Site
These old fields are flat lands with
deep alluvial soils which were prized as
farmlands by Native Americans, colonial
Bethanians, and subsequent landowners.
Currently these fields are a mixture of
grasses and herbaceous plants mixed
PLC & State Protected Lands
with weedy trees and shrubs. Continual
0 250 500
1,000
disturbance by mowing, grazing, orBethania
fire is National Landmark Area
Feet
needed to maintain a field and prevent it
impenetrable thickets where some of the larger
from naturally converting back into a forest.
animals like deer, coyotes, foxes, and turkey hide
Many insects, mammals, birds, and reptiles
during the day or bed down at night. Young trees
use old-field habitats for the dense and
provided colonists with limber poles for building
diverse cover and the abundant food sources.
uses, as well as stems, twigs, and branches to
Forest Lands
make tools and structures around the farm.
Young and old forest occur in this natural area.
waters of bethania
Forests provide products for human use, and
The floodplains of the Bethania natural area
habitat for species that nest off the ground, perch
have several kinds of surface water, including
in trees, or use cavities in trees for shelter. Most
ponds, streams, and springs. When the colonists
of the forests in the North Carolina Piedmont
arrived, much of this floodplain was drained
have been cut three or four times since colonial
with ditches to make the soil dry enough for
times, so sites with very large trees are rare. Steep
farming. The surface water was used untreated
slopes are where most of the mature trees are
by the colonists, and remains vital for livestock
in the modern Piedmont. The steep bluff forest
and agriculture. Today these waters and their
is the same kind of forest shown by surveys
surrounding wetlands are also important for
performed by the Moravian surveyor Reuter of
wildlife habitat, and serve as a filtration system
this same area in 1762. Reuter also served as
for water that runs off during storms, carrying
forester for these Moravian owned lands and
sediment and other pollutants. Wetlands and
established very early rules designed to assure
creek corridors are host to a rich diversity of
sustainable cutting.
plants and animals.
Young stands of trees are often almost
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Old Apple A
Orchard
Bethania National Landmark Area
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Fields and Farmland
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ear
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IEW
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The 1.4 mile Walnut Bottoms Loop Trail
begins at the Bethania Visitor Center and loops
through the Walnut Bottoms area, beginning
with shady paths in a forested region, continuing
along the base of Walnut Bluffs, then traveling
beside fields that were part of the original
agricultural parcels farmed by the residents of
18th-century Bethania. Along the well-marked
trail, you will find planned resting places,
beautiful views and serene shaded pathways.
Today Bethania’s landscape retains some
of the open fields created by the Moravian
settlers, but much has changed. Woodlands now
dominate the Black Walnut Bottoms landscape,
and non-native invasive plants crowd the native
plants, dramatically altering the character of the
wooded areas along the creeks. Forsyth Audubon
is working to manage the invasive plants and
restore native plants that thrived in Bethania
when the Moravians first settled here. The goals
of these efforts are to contribute to historical
restoration, beautify the property, and add
wildlife value.
Muddy Creek Bluffs
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Historic Bethania
Visitor Center
HIGH
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luff
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BEAR CREEK
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here are several different plant community
types in the Bethania Nature Trail area.
This diversity is a result of the soils, topography,
climate, and the history of land use. These
conditions provided a variety of resources and
value to the historic colonists of Bethania
and currently provide diverse wildlife
habitats and recreational use for visitors.
MAIN
natural attractions: exploring the Lands of Bethania
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1.4 miles
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Black Walnut
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